Exploring the individual, social and organizational predictors of knowledge-sharing behaviours among communities of practice of SMEs in Malaysia

Purpose To compete in a globally challenging environment, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly pressured to leverage their relational capital to stay competitive. The purpose of this study is to model the KS behaviour of SMEs in an increasingly networked world through communities of practice (CoP). Design/methodology/approach Data were collected using a survey instrument developed based on prior literature from SMEs operating only in the electronic manufacturing industry. A total of 120 responses were received of which only 100 were valid. SmartPLS, a second-generation analysis software, was used to analyse the model developed. Findings The findings indicated that affect, reward, perceived consequences and social factor were all positive predictors of KS behaviour of SMEs in communities of practice. Interestingly, the facilitating conditions were found to negatively influence KS behaviour. Practical implications The findings are helpful to SMEs who are embarking on knowledge management (KM) practices in their respective companies and may be used to leverage the drivers of KM to improve more sharing behaviour that keeps SMEs competitive. Originality/value To the best of the authors' knowledge, few studies have explored the individual (i.e. perceived consequences, affect), social (i.e. social factor) and organisational (i.e. facilitating condition, reward) predictors of KS behaviour among CoP’s in Malaysian SMEs.